The Unstoppable Zuri

What Comes Next?

I yawned and turned off my alarm. It felt surreal to be getting actual full nights of sleep now. I got myself out of bed and opened my curtains. This was really it. My first day of college.

    "Saph, wakey wakey!" I said, going into the nursery and turning the lights on.

    She looked at me in her crib and smiled. I groaned and lifted her out. She was over fifteen pounds now and getting heavier by the day.

    "Oh, someone stinks!" I said, setting her down on the changing table.

    Once she was in a fresh diaper, I put on her carrier and brought her to the kitchen, where I transferred her to her high chair and gave her a bottle while I heated up a muffin for myself, along with some coffee.

    I sat at the table for a while, looking at social media while I ate my muffin and pumped. Then, it was time to get dressed. I chose a simple purple t-shirt and shorts. It was really hot today. I got Sapphire dressed to the nines in a blue dress that had daisies all over it. It had a little yellow sweater that came with it, which I put on her so she wasn't cold in the air-conditioned daycare on campus.

    I did my hair in a messy bun, got everything ready, and checked my phone. The Go Bus was coming. I was excited to feel independent and not have to depend on my dad to take me everywhere. Now that I was eighteen, I was eligible to ride the Go Bus by myself, which was our local disability transportation, free of charge.

    When I got to the curb, I felt like I was being smothered. I had the baby in her carrier on my chest, the diaper bag on my back, and my messenger bag with my laptop and books, which I put in the front basket of my scooter.

    "Ba-ba! Ba-ba!" said Sapphire at the blue bus coming down the street.

    "Yes, Saph! Bus! Do you see the bus?" I asked her.

    "Ba-ba-ba!" she said.

    The bus stopped and the back doors opened, lowering the platform. I drove the scooter onto it and it lifted up. When I got onto the bus and the doors closed, I noticed another guy there with a baby. He was in a wheelchair and had her car seat resting on his lap.

    "Wow, it looks like I'm not the only parent on the bus today," he said, chuckling. "Our girls look like they're the same age."

    "Yeah. They do," I said, smiling. "This is Sapphire. She's eight months old."

    "Mine is seven months, so they're close," he said. "This is Venus."

    "Oh, that's such a pretty name!" I said.

    "My wife picked it. I got to name our twin boys, so she decided when we adopted her that she was picking the name," he said, chuckling.

    The bus stopped and let him off in front of my pediatrician's office. I waved goodbye to him. What a nice guy. His wife was lucky, whoever she was.

    The bus made a few more stops to pick up and let off people before we arrived at OFCC. It let me off in front of the Jackson Building, and I needed to go to Harvester Hall to drop off Sapphire before going to my first class in Green Hall.

    I drove my scooter across the campus, seeing all kinds of different people who were trying to get their lives together and figure out where they were going on this massive campus. I used the gps on my phone to find Harvester Hall, then followed the arrows on the inside if the building to the daycare center.

It was a staunch difference from when I took her to ESCC. The rooms were clean and in good shape. There were toys galore that I was certain Saph would end up putting in her mouth, because that was just what she liked to do. It was what she was doing with my phone while we waited in the line with the rest of the new parents.

I filled out her forms, gave her over to one of the teachers while she cried and broke my heart, then quickly made my way over to Green Hall. I went in the elevator and got off on the third floor, then went down the hall.

I wasn't really excited about taking my gen eds, the very first of which had to be a literature class. I chose Shakespeare 101, because it fit in best with my other classes. I wanted to take as many classes back to back as possible. I had two classes back-to-back on Monday and Wednesday, then two on Tuesday and Thursday.

I went into the classroom and found a seat near the back, moving myself from my scooter to my desk. We had a ton of books we were reading this semester, but according to the syllabus we received beforehand, the first one was going to be The Merchant of Venice.

"Hey, I think we're twins," said the guy sitting next to me.

I looked over. Wow. He was really cute. He moved his pen back and forth gesturing to our matching purple v-neck t-shirts.

    I chuckled. "And we sat right next to each other, too. What a coincidence."

    He smiled and held up his copy of The Merchant of Venice. "So, are you ready for some Shakespere?"

    "I literally didn't know he wrote anything other than Romeo and Juliet."

    "Seriously? Not even Macbeth?" he asked.

    "Shh! You can't say that! It's cursed!" said the girl sitting in front of me.

    Was this girl serious? I rolled my eyes, along with the cute, purple shirt guy. My face felt hot and I realized that I'd started blushing. I hadn't felt this way in a long, long time.

"I'm Matt, by the way," he said.

I smiled. "Nice to meet you. I'm Zuri."

*********************

The end!

Thanks to everyone who read and enjoyed this book. This is my milestone 30th completed book in my lifetime, and one of my absolute favorites to write.

What did you think of this book, compared so some of my other teen pregnancy books?